More than 100,000 people are expected in the German city of Hanover today for the opening of Expo 2000, the biggest spectacle ever staged in Germany, Denis Staunton writes from Berlin. Organisers expect 40 million people to visit the world exposition before it ends on October 31st, but the show has been criticised as wasteful, and ticket sales have been sluggish.
The German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, arrived in Hanover yesterday for a gala evening featuring a controversial performance by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Scorpions, a rock band, of a specially commissioned song. Many Germans were shocked to discover that the song contained lyrics that appear to refer to oral sex - an activity not obviously germane to Expo 2000's theme of "Humankind, Nature, Technology".
More than 150 countries, including Ireland, have presentations at the show, but the US is not participating and Germany's pavilion has been criticised as resembling "an imploding shoebox".